revue de l'artiste

The Artist - 2012, dir. Michel Hazanavicius

I wasn't sure what to expect from this film -- I vaguely knew that it might be a silent film, I'd seen an intriguing trailer for it, but basically thought that any film released in 2012 in black and white and possibly silent must be worth a watch, if only to see if they could pull it off.

Put simply, they did.

It's set in the late 1920s, and the main character is an old-school melodrama film star called George Valentin, who is basking in the heyday of his fame and success. Not giving anything away, time passes and the film industry progresses to the stage of pioneering the first 'talkie' films -- something Valentin thinks will never catch on.

The film as a whole -- while having plenty of genuinely funny moments -- is actually a lot more melancholy than I imagined. It's directed and shot beautifully, and I was surprised at just how little I missed any speech (there were some dialogue subtitles, but mainly you were left to work it out for yourself). It's to the credit of the actors that you just didn't really feel that you needed any dialogue.

I suppose it was out of such necessity that melodrama was born, but for The Artist to be able to distinguish between the over-acting of the movie-within-the-movie and the film itself is impressive. The film itself is subject to the same constraints as the silent films of the twenties, but I wasn't left with the feeling that any of it was unnecessarily over-acted.

I enjoyed the elements of the film that mirror characteristics of the original silents (like the characterisation of the little jack russell side-kick), and in a sense I think those sometimes blurred boundaries were reflected in George Valentin's life -- he expected the same reaction from people in real-life as those in his movies, and was eventually left behind in a world that made him increasingly irrelevant.

Overall, I was left with the urge to watch some of the old originals (my knowledge of them is lacking to say the least), after being given a new appreciation of their artistry.

And that, I suppose, was the point.

boots

I just got back from one of the best - and most unexpected - cinema trips I've had in a long while. After much scepticism, sighing, huffing and puffing, I allowed myself to be dragged to see the new Footloose film. I know, it's a remake. And, I know, remakes are generally crap. But trust me when I say, this one's worth seeing.

I think what I loved about it was the fact that, unlike most other remakes I've seen, it didn't try to change things for the sake of being different from the original - it let you enjoy getting all excited and nostalgic when you saw bits you recognised. This film was, pretty much, exactly the same as the 1984 version, but with new actors and a (very unobtrusively) few modern updates (Wren has an iPod. That's pretty much it).

In many cases the characters were better than the original cast, I thought, and the music was a really nice blend of country, modern, and the original songs (one of which was a gorgeous acoustic arrangement). I was initially worried that all the songs would end up being "modernised" into hip hop and the whole thing would end up being a hideous Step Up/Save The Last Dance wannabe within the frame of Footloose. But it wasn't - I think they got the balance just right (she says, while listening to the soundtrack, freshly iTuned).

Beautifully shot, good music, loads of fun. Do yourself a favour - go see it.

finale

I had to do the inevitable thing. Come on, "end of an era", "we've grown up with him", "proper end of our childhood [apparently Toy Story 3 wasn't it after all]". It's all pretty true.

So, here is my (very) wee debrief: I loved it. Truly. It wasn't perfect, and - naturally - it wasn't completely like the book, but man I loved this film. I started crying fairly promptly after McGonagall said: "Hogwarts is threatened! Man the boundaries, protect us! Do your duty to our school!" Even just typing that quote gave me goosebumps.

The thing is, I did grow up with Harry Potter. I remember when I bought the first book. I was on holiday and visiting this teeny little village somewhere in Shropshire, and we went into a little bookshop called the Red Balloon Bookshop, and I was looking for something to read. My mum said, "Oh look, I've heard this Harry Potter book is good – why don't you try that?" So I did. A few months later, Harry Potter exploded across the country – everyone, apparently, had "heard this Harry Potter book is good."

And from there it was just kind of woven into the background of our lives. We were always living in pre-book-release or post-release-aftermath. I don't pretend to be a die-hard Harry fan – I don't know all the intricate details of the Black family tree, I don't know the names of all the Deatheaters, but, man, I loved those books. So much so that I refused to see the first film for the first few months, because I was worried it would spoil the books for me.

Eventually I did watch the films, of course. And, of course, they were a little bit of a disappointment. Not because they were particularly bad films – on the contrary, I enjoyed them all – but because no films would ever be able to live up to the way we imagined it, and it wasn't fair for us to expect them to. But, best of all, they allowed us to live in the world of Hogwarts a little bit longer – even after the books were all finished.

It's because of this, I think, that I cried pretty much from McGonagall's quote all the way to the end. Because it really is the end this time, no more books, no more films. Of course I'll re-read them and re-watch them, but we all know it isn't quite the same. I also cried because, for many of us, it really does mark the end of our childhood. Not just because the films have finished, but because they've finished at a time when a lot of other things have finished too.

I've finished university, I've moved away from home, and a lot of my friends are moving away from my new home. I now have to start dealing with council tax, housing benefits, and temporary unemployment. This would all have happened regardless of a lad with glasses and a lightning scar, but somehow the end of the films seemed to mark the real end of something.

So that's why I cried. Not just because it's over, but because I've loved it.

pep

So, I'm really rather excited for three reasons.

1. Last week I availed myself of one of these. This has revolutionised my coffee-consumption. Coffee-making now feels like more of an event - crack out the ol' percolator and away we go.
2. Seriously considering the future and what I want to do after uni has led me to the possibility of a job so exciting that I'm still trying to convince myself that it's within my reach. So I'm sat here giving my CV a wash and scrub-up and pondering thoughts for a cover letter. More on this when there's more to tell.
3. Purchased the soundtrack to this film that I went to see a week or so ago (twice, actually). Well worth a watch/listen:

finished

So, the aforementioned Events Week finished last week and it was bloomin amazing! Here is a video summarising all that went on:



Well, suffice it to say it was all marvellous and I was pooped to the highest degree when it was all over - so so much organisation and so many early mornings and late nights. All wholly worth it though!

So, in a quick sum-up of all that's been happening in the last few weeks, given my blog posts have been scanty to say the least:

• I presented a few ideas for my documentary for my Contemporary Documentary module (which I'm loving). The only fly in the ointment is that my tutor hasn't been over-enamoured with any of my ideas so far. However, I've storyboarded the one I like best and I'm just going to run with it - hopefully I'll be able to prove that I'm not a total non-entity, haha. SO eager to get my hands on the SLRs that we're using to film the documentaries - I've booked one out for this coming Wednesday and also the weekend. Cannee wait!
  
  
• I've seen the following films at the cinema: 
• Hereafter (6/10 could have cut half an hour out of it without breaking a sweat)
• Black Swan (8/10 gripping throughout and beautifully shot)
• The Fighter (8/10 Christian Bale was fantastic - didn't really like him as an actor until this film)
• True Grit (8/10 a little slow at times but beautiful and some clever funny lines)
  
  
• I've read the following books (excluding uni-related): 
• Never Let Me Go (I was determined to read it before seeing the film - which hopefully I'll be seeing tomorrow. It's well worth a read, very compelling)
• The Screwtape Letters (a re-read, still a definite favourite - typical glorious C. S. Lewis eloquence and wit)
• Searching for God Knows What (technically still reading this one, but it's brilliant so far)
  
  
• Got a couple of offers for work experience in a couple of marketing agencies in London (I know right?!) - so so excited about them! Can't imagine little ol' me commuting into the Big Smoke for work!
   
• Started knitted the long-awaited iPod sock. It's my first time using a proper pattern and involved me learning to purl (a tad harder than anticipated...) but lovely Ellie has been on hand with counselling and lightning-fast knitting-reflexes, haha.

Can't think of anything else in particular, but it's seemed like a really busy few weeks - with more social gatherings and cups of coffee than I care to remember. Jolly good stuff.

excuses excuses

OK, yes yes, I know. Utterly feeble blog-presence of late. OK fine, virtually nil presence. Yeah I know, trying to fob you off with little YouTube video summaries was a fail.

HOWEVER! I do have a fairly (fairly...) reasonable excuse. Drumroll please...

I have a job! Oh yes, that's right - job search was not completely fruitless after all! For the last 2-and-a-bit weeks I've been working at a chartered accountant's. Oh yes, it is exactly as grown up as it sounds.

Of course, truth is I know zilch about bloomin accounting, but thankfully they're all very friendly and sympathetic towards the numerically-illiterate and have given me nice wordy things to do. AND they're wanting to do pretty much a full corporate re-brand and hopefully I'm going to be involved in that. Which is, needless to say, excessively exciting :)

So, in short, everything's rather sunny at the moment. And as if things weren't going well enough, I'm off to see Eclipse tomorrow night (*cough*...). Perhaps won't be the visual feast that was Inception, but... well, you know.

The Most Annoying Movie Moments

What, pray, is this? "A YouTube frenzy!" I hear you say. Well, yes. That's what comes from having summer holiday and currently no job.

(Emphasis on the hopefully-not-too-lengthy "currently"...)

un autre

Did another vlog, this time about the new Robin Hood film. Two vlogs in three days? I'm just enjoying my new editing software too much :)
Also wanted to share this tasty picture:

This is my red velvet cake no. 2 in the making. I didn't have my cake tins here in Newcastle so I split the mixture between a couple of loaf tins - our red velvet loaves were demolished in about two days between four hungry housemates. A job well done :) 

two cinema trips

The first:

Just lovely. Very beautiful film, full of colour and expression. Very sad, but to be expected given the true story, but very delicate and not over-sentimental. Not only that, but heroine is curvy enough to give us all hope of finding a tragic but beautiful Romantic poet out there.



The second:

Feel ashamed to admit it, but I really bloomin' enjoyed this one too. Perhaps not as heart-wrenching and gorgeous, but - I've got to hand it to them - it's certainly compelling. Left the cinema feeling all teen-angsty and as giddy as a 15 year-old, and inevitably in love with a werewolf. £4 well spent, I'd say.

somers town

A brilliant film, completely lovely. Directed by Shane Meadows (of "This is England" fame) and so delicate.

Let's hear it for British film.